That was a pretty good explanation, actually. "You mean the time you got shot in the leg?" If I remembered correctly, Ranger had said 'my fucking leg,' which surprised me because I knew now that he almost never cursed. He'd probably been wearing his big bad wolf costume then, still trying to keep me away. God, it seemed like ages ago that had happened.
Ranger smiled and nodded, brushing errant curls away from my face. "Not so long ago, Babe."
I gaped at him. "How do you do that?"
He just looked at me, that one corner of his lips tipping up.
"Oh, alright, alright, I know. The ESP thing. You'd have to kill me and blah, blah, blah…"
His eyes darkened, and I wondered if I'd said something wrong. Then he shook his head, and I rolled my eyes. I'd have to keep my thoughts closer to my brain, then. I cuddled back down against him, resting my head against his chest. His heartbeat was soothing to me, and in moments I felt myself drifting off into a misty slumber. The feel of Ranger's hands on me, one at the nape of my neck and the other rubbing up and down my back only intensified the yummy effect. The man was like a drug.
I had just begun having a wildly naughty dream when the doorbell rang, making me jump halfway off the couch and out of Ranger's arms.
"Babe," he said, unable to stop his lips from curling upward at the corners. "It's just Ella. With breakfast."
Food! Yippee!
Ella came in looking just as exuberant as ever. When her eyes lit on me she grinned widely. "I see Ranger finally got some common sense," she said. I tried not to laugh, but Ranger's pained expression was priceless.
"Stephanie lives with me now, Ella," he said, taking the tray from her and setting it on the table. "Permanently."
Ella looked shocked for all of two seconds. "Oh, this is wonderful! I have been hoping you wouldn't let her get away!" She took my hand and beamed at me. "It will be so wonderful to have you here, Stephanie."
"Thank you," I said, unsure of what else to say. It was a strange place I found myself in.
When Ella left Ranger uncovered the breakfast tray, revealing fresh fruit, bagels, cream cheese, that other stuff Ranger always used, and some hot buttery croissants. Hmm. The croissants seemed to me the closest thing to a doughnut.
I popped it in my mouth and curled up in the chair across from Ranger, watching him eat. He was so efficient, so catlike in his movements. I didn't care that I was devouring him with my eyes. Since he was mine now, I supposed it gave me devouring rights. Right?
"I think I might go to the gym today," I said, popping another bite of the heavenly little croissant down the hatch.
Ranger's knife stopped six inches from his bagel. "You're serious about this?"
I knew he didn't just mean the gym. He meant about my training. I nodded and swallowed. "I figure now is a good time to start." Hopeless case that I am, the sooner the better, right?
"Do you remember where it is?" he asked me, still looking thoughtful.
"Fifth floor?" I got a nod.
Ranger polished off his bagel and forked some fruit onto his plate. "You haven't touched the coffee, Babe."
Coffee? Oh, holy cow! How did I miss that? The great big silver steaming damn coffee pot! I was maybe a little distracted this morning.
"I guess I have a lot on my mind," I said, pulling a coffee cup and saucer toward me.
Ranger shook his head and picked up the coffee pot and filled my cup. It was a wonder to me to watch his hands move. Something so domestic didn't seem like it could be so…intimate. It fluttered at something inside me, and for once I didn't push it away.
"I--" I broke off, uncertain of whether or not I should just blurt out what was on my lips.
Ranger's eyebrow went up. I was trapped. Dammit. "I, uh, was just going to say that…um…I love you." There. I said it.
The brown of his eyes darkened, and I was hoping it was a good sign. "Babe, you don't have to walk on eggshells around me. You never have. Don't start."
"I guess I feel kind of strange. Now that everything's out in the open, I guess. I don't want to mess it up," I blurted out, and was shocked at how true that was. I had so much more to lose now. It had all hit me like a train, and now I might have been having a small panic attack.
"Babe," Ranger said, and I swear I heard him sigh. "Let me get this straight. I know every little embarrassing thing about you. Almost," he amended, when I grimaced, "and I think no less of you. I've seen, touched, and kissed every inch of your body."
Heaven help me, I was having a hot flash again. I squirmed in my seat, trying to dispel the sudden ache in my body.
"And now, you're nervous?"
I chewed on my lip and cracked my knuckles. "Yes?"
I thought he might have been mad. When he burst out laughing, my mouth dropped to the floor.
"This is not funny!" I yelled. But he just went right on laughing. He was making fun of me! Here I was, having a panic attack over the man of my dreams, and he actually had the nerve to laugh!
I threw a piece of my croissant at him, and nailed him square in the center of the forehead. Which one of us looked more shocked, I will never know. Ranger's lips curled up in a big grin, and I knew I was in for it. I think I probably must have gasped, because his eyes zeroed right in on my mouth, and suddenly the grin was replaced with a predatory smirk. It would explain why I suddenly felt like the prey.
Shrieking, I leapt out of my chair and raced for the bathroom, hoping to lock myself in before I was the rest of breakfast. But wait. What the heck was I running away from him for? He was mine now. I wanted to be caught.
I slammed on the brakes halfway to the bedroom, surprising Ranger who had been hot on my tail. He collided with the back of me with a loud 'Oof!' (Or maybe it was me) and we both went down like a sack of bricks.
I moaned when I got my breath back and tried to lift myself on my forearms. "Oh, my chest, throat, head, neck…Ow," I said, grinning when I saw Ranger flop over onto his back and rub at his chest.
He grinned at me. "I guess I just can't help falling for you," he said.
My mouth dropped. He made a joke? Omigod. I had never, ever heard Ranger make a joke. I started laughing and before I knew it found myself curled up on his chest and clutching my stomach. Ranger's abs clenched and released every time he laughed, making me feel like I was on a roller coaster. But then I got a visual of the abs clenching, and had another hot flash.
This was a side of Ranger I had never seen, a part of himself he kept deeply buried. It touched me on a very instinctive level, and I loved him all the more for it. Sometime today I'd have to face reality and give him up to go to work, but not before I had my way with him one last time.
"Ric," I said, taking deep breaths. "I think I want to ravage you again."
"Sounds tempting," he said, and I could feel the vibration from his deep voice against me, making me think jumping him sounded like the best idea on earth.
"Very tempting," I said, reaching down to trace my tongue along the corded tendon in his neck. The taut control he kept over his reactions to me only made me want to drive him crazier, so I nipped at the taut flesh at the juncture of his jaw. I got a growl out of that one, but then I found myself being lifted and carried somewhere. Uh-oh.
"I think you need a shower, babe," Ranger said, setting me down on the tile floor of the bathroom. Then he began to strip out of his clothes.
Fuzzy lines wafted through my brain. "What? Wait. Didn't you already have…a shower…" I finished lamely, as Ranger had just kicked his black cargos aside and stood fully naked in front of me. I didn't even remember what I'd just asked him. My mouth had gone dry, and I thought my knees might give out any moment.
He just raised an eyebrow and waited. "What?" I asked, then blushed. "Oh."
Fumbling with my top snap and ripping the zipper down, I shimmied out of the clingy jeans and kicked them over to consort with Ranger's pants on the floor. Very erotic somehow. Ranger was in front of me in an instant and divested me of the rest of my clothes.
And his mouth was on me…for the millionth time today already. I was in heaven. His mouth and hands needed an insurance policy. And his… Okay, so hopefully all his parts had insurance policies of their very own.
"Shower," Ranger said, pointing me there. Numbly, I stepped inside the big stall, watching Ranger as he turned the spray on and adjusted the temperature. It was nice that he kept me back out of the water until it was warm enough. Very touching. And then he was touching me, and all thoughts went right out of my head again.
He turned me around and backed me into the spray, letting it soak my hair, brushing it back away from my face with tender hands. I sent him a look full of question, but he just smiled at me. "Let me," he said, and I about collapsed into a puddle.
Watching my face all the while, he took shampoo and massaged it into my scalp. The vibrations of his fingers sent shivers down my spine, goosebumps broke out on my arms, and I think I moaned because his mouth was on mine before my synapses could fire. But he pulled away, leaning me back into the spray to rinse out the shampoo.
I survived through the conditioner all right, but then he picked up his bottle of Bulgari shower gel, squeezing some onto a loofah I didn't recognize. "I had Ella bring it for me," he explained. I didn't care. I closed my eyes and became awash in sensation. The sheer force of Ranger's being, his body so close to me, had me in a state to begin with. Add to that the smell of his shower gel, my body all wet and slippery, and his hands on me? Lord, somebody better check with NASA to make sure I didn't shoot off into the stratosphere.
"I'm putty in your hands," I said. I think I was probably purring again. Ranger smiled and maneuvered me out of the spray. He touched the loofah to my forearm, scrubbing gently in small circles. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the shower. He followed up that arm and down the other, even massaging my fingers as he went.
And did the man look good wet, or what! Seeing all that shiny black hair running water down his chest like that was definitely worth opening my eyes for. And he was all mine.
The shower gel from heaven had worked its way to my chest by now, and the things he was doing to my breasts made me want to jump up and sing the hallelujah chorus. Twice. The pattern seemed that he was just going to keep going farther south, and about two minutes later I got confirmation. My knees collapsed and I slumped against the shower wall, eliciting a chuckle from Ranger, who seemed to be having a great old time taking his time.
And oh, no, I was certainly not complaining. Exhausted already. But not complaining.
"Turn around," he said, squeezing more gel onto the loofah.
"Huh?" I said, not caring to open my eyes.
"Time to do your back."
"Oh, God."
"I'll try my best," he said, grinning in a very wicked way.
About forty minutes later I was flat on my back, arm flung over my eyes…purring.
Again.
"What is it exactly, about you, that makes me do this?" I grumbled aloud to Ranger, who was getting dressed once more.
He smiled at me. I couldn't see him, but I felt it. "I have that effect on women."
I threw a pillow at him. Whack! Right in the back. "Not anymore. Woman. Me. Singular."
Ranger laughed and brought my pillow back. Instead of smothering me with it, like I thought he might, he put his hand under my neck and lifted me, situating the pillow comfortably beneath my back. He traced my cheek with two fingertips, then the outline of my mouth. I wondered if he was thinking anything along the same lines I was. How lucky I was that we were finally giving each other a chance. How amazing it was that I could touch him now, anytime I wanted. That he would be there, with me, all the time now.
"Yeah, babe," he said softly. "That sums it up."
He bent and kissed my lips softly, pulling the comforter up to my chin. "Rest," he said. "I have to go to work."
I smiled and gave him a little finger wave, flopping my arm back on the bed. It was quiet for so many moments I thought he must have gone, but his voice startled me, even though it was very soft across the room.
"I love you, Babe."
Then I knew he was gone. I physically felt his presence leave the room, and I felt empty inside. So I did what I do best. I rolled over on my stomach, curled up, and fell asleep.
And when I woke up, I was going to the gym.